Three US citizens imprisoned for years in China have been released and are returning to the United States, the White House says.
The three are Mark Swidan, Kai Li and John Leung, all of whom had been designated by the US government as wrongfully detained.
Swidan had been facing a death sentence on drug charges while Li and Leung were imprisoned on espionage charges.
“Soon they will return and be reunited with their families for the first time in many years,” the White House said in a statement.
A US official said President Joe Biden’s administration had raised the cases of the three with China in multiple meetings over the past several years, including earlier this month when Biden spoke to President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Peru.
Politico was first to report the men’s release, which said it was part of a prisoner swap with the US.
The White House did not immediately confirm that any Chinese citizens had been returned home.
Li, a Chinese immigrant who started an export business in the US, was detained in September 2016 after flying into Shanghai.
He was placed under surveillance, interrogated without a lawyer and accused of providing state secrets to the FBI.
A United Nations working group called his 10-year prison sentence arbitrary and his family said the charges were politically motivated.
Leung was sentenced last year to life in prison on spying charges.
He was detained in 2021 by the local bureau of China’s counterintelligence agency in the southeastern city of Suzhou after China had closed its borders and imposed tight domestic travel restrictions and social controls to fight the spread of COVID-19.
Swidan had been jailed for 12 years on a drug charge and, along with Li and Leung, had been considered by the US State Department to be wrongfully detained.
https://thewest.com.au/news/crime/white-house-says-three-us-citizens-released-in-china-c-16901303
